I was getting ready to write out a check for the Red Cross to help out with the efforts in New Orleans. I paused while I heard reports of looting. "People where stealing food, water and shoes." I rationalized this by saying that these people were taking things to survive. I began writing the check. I filled out the date and was just about to fill in the amount.. A report came over the TV that women were being raped in the Super Dome shelter. This I couldn't rationalize. Rape has nothing to do with surviving. Looters were shooting at police. Police were looting stores. Other police officers turned in their badges and quit. PEOPLE WERE SHOOTING AT RESCUE HELICOPTERS. I set the pen down and slid the checkbook aside. I said to myself: "Florida gets hit with several hurricanes each year, you do not see this kind of "Wild West" mentality." In Florida, people in trouble help each other. Why would I help someone who doesn't even help themselves?
Then I saw a man in tears. During the levee breach, he tried to hang on to his wife's hand to save her. He couldn't hold on, she is gone. There are so many people suffering in New Orleans. I began writing out the check, again. Then the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin began yelling at me. Telling me that I should have been ready to help HIS city. Nagin lectured me that..: "Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me, and that's why we were having the escalation in murders. People don't want to talk about this, but I'm going to talk about it. You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for a fix…"
Well, isn't now a tad bit too late to fix your cities drug habit. You, Mayor Nagin, were the one calling all available police to stop looking for survivors and go round up looters. The officers in the streets had no place to take criminals. No one thought ahead. 93 members of the San Diego search and rescue team had to sit on the sideline all day Thursday waiting for orders. They couldn't go into the city Mister Mayor, your administration evacuated all search efforts. Why didn't you call the governor and get the State Police ahead of time. "Why did it get so bad so fast?" The reverend Al Sharpton told me this was a black thing. If these were white people, they wouldn't be standing on rooftops waiting for help. I closed the checkbook and shut the TV off.
I headed off to work. I listened to the radio and heard wonderful stories of Americans pulling together. The city of Youngstown Ohio has set up 7 semi trucks, fueled and ready. Bread companies, bottled water companies and private citizens are filling these semi's full of supplies. I got home early from work and I grabbed the checkbook. As I was signing my name on the check, I put Blogster on and happened to see a post in which a person is reciting Michael Moore. Moore is blaming the hurricane on President Bush. Well, the lack of helicopters to help with survivors. There was also a complete transcript of New Orleans Mayor Nagin's interview. Reading the mayor's words, I began to realize that he never blames himself. Everyone else is to blame. You, me, the president, the governor. All are to blame because WE should have acted quicker.
I decided I will stop looking at Liberal left-wing propaganda until I can get this check mailed out to the Red Cross. My check will not amount to much. It is just a drop in the bucket. But it means something.
New Orleans was hit with three disasters.
1. A hurricane
2. A city built 4 to 6 feet below sea level
3. A complete social breakdown of massive proportions. The governor, the mayor and the residents didn't heed the warnings.
I believe reason number three is what did the most damage…AR…
Here are some comments from other Bloggers....
And the race card, isn't that always the way. Can't we just for one time be color blind. Everyone. Because this is so widespread that the black leaders who are just complaining are really making themselves look stupid.Oh, yes, I read that post from Rubyrocks and I don't think that Moore actually blamed the hurricane on Bush. I think he was blaming him for Iraq and the lack of money available here and the lack of National Guard troops here. (I went back to read it again to make sure) I ain't saying I agree with him, on anything, but he didn't say bush caused the hurricane.
comment by retiredthoughts
I don't think any of you have the right to tell someone who's been sleeping next to dead bodies for 5 days without food and water how they are supposed to behave or react. There was a massive failure here at all levels of government, and it really makes me angry. Bush was doing photo-ops playing golf and playing guitar the day after the hurricane, which should really piss off any republican or democrat. The federal help came 5 days late! Funding to the Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade the New Orleans levees was cut back 3 years in a row! I can't blame the mayor for being angry as his city is virtually in ruins and from his point of view, nobody seems to care.I'm writing my cheque as well, and hopefully mine and your drop in the bucket will help someone get to safety a bit faster.
comment by liberalfreak
Hey, if you want to be angry at Bush because New Orleans was not prepared for a cat-5 hurricane. That's your right. I can remember a Discovery Channel special 12 years ago warning of the levee system in New Orleans. This wasn't a new problem. Hell, the native Indians warned the French not to build a settlement at the end of the river. The Mississippi River has always been prone to flooding.
Bush WAS on vacation. You and others keep reminding us of that. Mayor Nagin was where?? Was he on vacation?? Do you know?? I hadn't seen him. You do realize that congress had to vote on the federal funding. They too were on vacation. They all came back and the 10.5 Billion will be coming.
You of all people should not be asking for a Republican President to head into a Democratic Mayor's city and start barking orders..: "OK mayor, you can go now. I want 500 busses, we will remove everybody. If they are not smart enough to leave, we will FORCE THEM. Club them on the head and throw them into the busses. Your police force, they are mine now. I want a line of cops drawn around the crack houses. We will turn the library into a jail. Mister mayor, move out of the way, I President Bush, am in charge…"
You can blame Bush for not fixing the levees. I can blame Clinton for not fixing the levees. "What good will this do?
I can tell you two things Liberal Freak. In 1990, I arrived in LA with $20 bucks in my pocket. I had nothing and I slept outside. I used a pay phone number as my home phone to apply for jobs. I begged and I got a job. I worked hard and made it. So this isn't no "rich guy" who doesn't know what it is like. If I would have been poor, with no car, and living in New Orleans. If someone told me a level 5 hurricane was heading for me. No matter how poor I was. I would have walked my ass right out of town.
Anyone who drove or walked out of New Orleans survived and didn't go hungry…AR…
comment by angryrepublican
